The archery sport, whether hunting, bow fishing, or competitive archery, has many accessories to give the archer and his or her equipment an improved level of accuracy when shooting the bow. Arrow rests are needed to raise the arrow off the riser to give the arrow clearance above the arrow riser shelf and hand grip area to enable the fletching, vanes or numerous types of arrow points to pass over the shelf without contact or interference when the arrow is pulled back in the draw cycle of the bow string and then released. The arrow rest also forces the arrow to move in a straight linear motion from the knock point of the arrow to the release point or center of the arrow rest.
There are many designs for arrow rests on the market called drop away rests. Their function is as follows: once the arrow is drawn back, the arrow lifts off the arrow shelf and once the archer releases the arrow from full draw, the rest drops out of the way in a pivoting rotation or vertical dropping motion to get out of the way of the fletching or vanes if the rest reacts fast enough. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,044,832; 5,415,154; 4,865,007: 4,803,971; and 7,311,099 are herein incorporated by reference.
To insure improvements of the current arrow rests that are on the market today there are many changes needed. Three of the problems that the current designs face are: the ability to contain the arrow to enable the archer to shoot at numerous angles; to be actuated fast enough to clear the arrow's vanes and fletching once the arrow is released; and third, once the rest drops out of the way it can bounce back into the flight path of the arrow when the archer releases the arrow due to recoil and or spring back in the apparatus itself. The present invention solves these problems.
First, most of the current drop-away arrow rests do not fully contain the arrow, but only support the arrow against the force of gravity. Thus, if the archer needs to move the bow to a position other than vertical, the arrow may drop off the rest, causing potential injury to the archer if the arrow is inadvertently released.
Second, many of the current rests do not actively release from the arrow, but depend on the force of gravity to allow the rest to passively drop away from the arrow upon firing. These rests may not be able to move away from the arrow fast enough to allow the fletching to clear the arrow rest.
Third, many of the current arrow rests require other accessories, such as a cable guard, for operation and cannot be used without these additional accessories. An example is the arrow rest described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,832.
Fourth, some of the rests bias the arrow support toward the arrow, depending on the relative movement of the bow limb, cable or string upon release to jerk the arrow support out of the path of the arrow, and then depend upon the restoring force of the spring to return the arrow support to a position where an arrow can again be loaded. An example is the arrow rest described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,971. Such arrow rests are unnecessarily complex and may cause the arrow rest to rebound into the path of the arrow.
There is a need for a pull-away arrow rest that completely supports an arrow around the perimeter of the arrow shaft when the bow is fully drawn and retracts rapidly and completely away from the path of the arrow shaft and vanes in a self-centering, radial motion.